Memorial Day

Memorial Day weekend was a busy weekend for us this year. On Saturday, we had a wedding for one of Devin's fraternity brothers in Springfield. It was a great time seeing all of our college friends, but man does it make us feel old. We are the only ones out of the group with a baby! Crazy! Anyway, we skipped the wedding and just went to the reception. It was gorgeous! Great food and friends! There was a lot of talk of the big wedding coming up in September in Puerto Rico! It is about 100 days away! We can't wait! We are traveling down with and staying at the same hotel as the couple that got married. It should be a good time.

On Sunday, my mom and I headed up to Earlville to two of my cousins graduation parties. It was fun to show Tori off as this was the first time my dad's side of the family has met her! Here are some pictures!

We weren't sure what all food would be at the party and Tori can be a picky eater, so we stopped and got her a happy meal on the way. She wasn't that impressed.

Happy to be out of the carseat!

"Choking" Aunt Betsey.

Reading a book with Aunt Betsey. Betsey always wanted a little girl...she has four boys!

Tori wasn't a fan of Uncle Gary for some reason.

She didn't know what to think of Aunt Debbie either.

Aunt Shelia was okay though!

On Monday we had three cookouts and a yard that needed mowed! We had lunch out at Grandpa and Me-Maws with Brittany and Jason, Patrick, and Grandma Burks.

Tori used to hate the grass, even when she was on a blanket. She will now play on the blanket, but won't touch the grass. Baby steps right?

Working on standing on her own!

After lunch we headed home so Devin could mow and Tori could nap. When she work up she and I headed to my grandparents and Devin joined us when he was done.

Who needs toys when you have a water bottle and a little table?

Getting ready to climb the chair.

She made it to where she was standing on it, but I couldn't take pictures because I had to catch her if she fell!

Showing off how big she is!

After my grandparents, we headed over to Nick's house for a cookout with our friends. Tori was pooped by this point and slept through that cookout! Then we came home, had bath time, and went to bed! It was a busy, but fun weekend!

Thanks for checking in!

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Kick, Kick, Kick

On May 21st Tori started swimming lessons at the Y. She had been swimming two times prior to this and loved it, so we decided to enroll her in lessons. At 10.5 months she is the youngest in the class. We have been for two weeks and shes done awesome! She loves to kick and splash! This past week she even went under the water! I was expecting her to scream bloody murder but she didn't make a peep! She is so not like me! I still hate going under water! Here are some pictures from her first week of swim lessons!

Learning to splash!

Showing Miss Heather her instructor how she can "Cheeeeeeeeese!"

Concentrating so hard on kicking that she has to stick out her tongue!

Swimming to mommy!

Getting her duck back!

She's a kicking machine!

She was splashing another kid with her kicks so we had to take a break.

Love this picture!

Kicking like crazy!

She saw something behind me that she wanted!

We have 6 more weeks of lessons and then we will probably enroll again! It is fun to see her enjoying it and there aren't many organized things around here to do with babies her age. I want her to like the water and know how to swim, unlike me! This summer we hope to spend a lot of time at the pool! Debating on about going to Dragonland or Tremont. I would love to have a pool of our own, but I don't want to take care of it!

Thanks for checking in!

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10 Months

On April 29th Tori turned 10 months old. She weighed about 17 pounds 10 ounces at this time! Here are some pictures from her 10 month photo shoot!

Such pretty blue eyes!

Not into sitting still to have her picture taken!

What a big girl! Mocha wanted in the picture too!

Oh and the outfit she has on in these pictures is from her favorite store, 77 kids, which is the children's division of American Eagle. In my opinion their clothes make babies look like little adults and not babies! We found the store in Woodfield Mall last time we were in Chicago visiting Eric and Rachel.

Thanks for checking in!

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Tori's 1st Easter

I think Tori enjoyed her first Easter. Eric, Rachel, and Sofia (and the dogs) all came down for the weekend! The babies and the dogs got along great! On Saturday we went to a baby shower and did the girls Easter baskets. Sunday, we went to church, then to Mike and Stacy's and then to my grandmas. By the end of the day we were all really tired! Running around everywhere really takes a toll on us!

Here are some pictures from the weekend!

The Myers' family didn't get here until about 10pm on Friday night, so Tori was ready for bed, but we let her play with her cousin for a little bit. Tori only gets a pacifier at nap time and bed time so she was thrilled when Sofia had one attached to her!

She immediately locked in on Sofia's pacifier and got it in her mouth, despite in being attached to Sofia!

Look at all of Sofia's hair! At the time these pictures were taken Sofia was almost 8 months old and Tori was almost 10 months old.

Sofia ripping apart her Easter basket from us!

Sofia checking out Tori's basket!

They got matching hats (and dresses) from Grandmama!

Tori was digging into her basket. Sofia was interested in the food.

Tori must have spotted something good!

Rachel had our camera for a bit, which resulted in a lot of pictures of Sofia :)

The dogs! Sakari is the one laying down, Sila is the black one and Mocha is the red one. Sakari and Mocha are actually half sisters...they have the same mom.

Happy girl on Easter morning!

We had to have a little photo shoot before we went to church and they headed to Havana.

It was hard getting them to sit still and I know its only going to get worse!

Sofia got her shoe off!

...and wants to chew on it!

Sofia is sharing her shoe with her cousin!

Tori is done with the photo shoot!

Family picture before heading to church!

She got a pickle at Easter lunch. Too bad she didn't eat it!

Second cousin Sophia was very interested in Tori!

We got her to stand next to Tori and hold her hand.

Then we convinced her to sit next to her!

We had a good Easter and hope you all did too!

Thanks for checking in! (I am done posting for the night. Check back in tomorrow for more!)

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High chair cleaner

As you all know, feeding a baby is rather messy. The dogs in Tori's life have learned this faster than anyone else! When she eats at Grandpa and MeMaw's Romeo lays right underneath her high chair. At home, Mocha doesn't leave her side and has even taken food from her hand before! Mocha is fast to snatch up any food that gets on the floor and when Tori is done eating she cleans her high chair. We have yet to get good pictures of this, but here are a few that we have managed to get!

Checking out the highchair.

Oh there is something in it!

Got it!

The times I have seen Mocha do this she is doing it from the front and not the sides. It is funny to see when the high chair moves on her!

Thanks for checking in again! (I dunno why I feel the need to put that at the end of every post, especially when I am posting so many any a row! But, I do appreciate you reading this!)

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Ouchie

On April 16, Tori got her first real ouchie. I was making her oatmeal and Devin was outside with the dog. Tori had just started scooting around the furniture. Of course it was common for her to fall and we tried not to run to her and pick her up every time she fell and cried. So when I heard a thud and screaming I just hollered from the kitchen "oh you are fine, get back up". But the crying continued so I went and picked her up and within probably 20 seconds she was quiet. In that time Devin came inside and said "Ummm why is she bleeding?". My baby girl had conked her nose when she fell! She had blood on herself, me and the floor! It didn't bother her until I tried to wipe her nose, then all hell broke lose and she screamed bloody murder. I rocked her and got the bleeding stopped, but she screamed anytime we tried to wipe the dried blood off of her nose. So, we just took her to the park with dried blood on her nose!

Here are some pictures from the ouchie.

There was even blood on the floor!

You can see the blood around her nose.

Still happy anyway!

I am so happy that she is tough! Hopefully she continues to be tough!

Thanks for checking in!

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